REVIEW: Act Like It by Lucy Parker

It seems like everyone and their mother has been talking about this book. And I am nothing if not a shameless follower of trends. The book ingratiates itself by being an enemies-to-lovers banter-fest. Our intrepid heroine, Lainie, is an actor on the West End. She’s currently appearing in a play with intolerable luvvie, Richard Troy (awks) and her ex, Will (double awks). Richard is the enfant bloody horrific of the London theater scene, and in an attempt to salvage the play’s reputation, Lainie’s superiors insist both she and Richard put on their own play within a play. Yes, they want them to *gasp* pretend to be a couple! They feel Lainie’s kindness and charitable nature would rub off on Richard’s, well, lack thereof and therefore endear people to the production.

While ‘kindness and charitable nature’ sound like nice but boring traits in a heroine (what a perfectly sociopathic thing to say!), Lainie is smart, sharp, and devoid enough of bull to make them work. Richard, while arrogant, is refreshingly candid and protective, and both fall into a sparky, banter-filled friendship. Incidentally, as I was reading their charming dialogue, the ghosts of Michael Faraday and Robert Boyle appeared within the pages to tell me they had given up the chemistry lark as Parker had shown them up as amateurs. Complications arise when Will, Laine’s toad of an ex, gets jelly. Richard’s past also comes back to haunt him as his skeletons decide it’s a wonderful day for a gambol away from the closet.

This was a book that made me feel safe. It made me feel safe in the author’s hands, safe in the characters’ hands, safe in the story’s hands. It was a book written with confidence and verve. As I said, the chemistry was extraordinary, but the main characters’ friendship was treated with the same careful dedication. Their interactions were funny and warm and smart, and neither character was forced to forsake any of their sharpness to make way for the romance.

The story was let down somewhat by an unnecessarily dramatic climax, which felt out of place and forced, but what came before it was strong enough to leave me with a stupid smile on my even stupider face.

Comments

Your reviews are my new favorite thing! I love the humor and your style. :-) I haven’t heard of this book before, but I just put it on hold at the library because when I see the word “banter,” I’m there!

Your choice of “safe” to describe this reading experience resonated, even at the same time it isn’t how I typically think about books. Now that you’ve mentioned it, I correlate it to my sense of “oh no please don’t go there don’t screw this up” when a book I’m invested in turns into a shankopotamus, when I don’t feel safe in the author’s hands. Interesting. That alone means I have to take a look. Thank you!

I really enjoyed this book as well. The thing that stood out most for me was Parker’s writing – every line is genuinely smart and funny and well observed. Sometimes when an author is trying too hard to be “writerly” it gets exhausting to read, but this was really just wonderful in every way. It could have been a book about sausages and I would have been engaged.

I’m a sucker for jackass heroes who learn to see the error of their ways, and though Lainie’s description as someone good and charitable could have made her a boring heroine, she was anything but. She was perfectly, acerbically, normal, nothing pollyanna or irritating about her. I really appreciated her character and laughed frequently at her droll observations throughout.

I read a bunch of reviews that weren’t thrilled with the ending or thought it was melodramatic, but if I hadn’t read the reviews, I wouldn’t have noted it at all. For me the book was even-keeled and so confidently written that I’m now willing to buy into anything and everything Parker is selling, even sausages. I wholly agree with your rating.

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